Shooting spree across Calif county leaves 4 dead

TUSTIN, Calif. — The violence stretched across 25 miles in Orange County and was as brutal as it was fast-moving.

In less than an hour, a 20-year-old student wielding a shotgun killed a woman in his home and two commuters during carjackings early Tuesday, shot up vehicles on a Southern California freeway and committed suicide as police closed in on him, authorities said.

One driver was forced from his BMW at a stop sign, marched to a curb and killed as witnesses watched in horror.

The shooter, Ali Syed, was an unemployed, part-time student who lived with his parents at the Ladera Ranch residence where the first victim was slain, Tustin police Chief Scott Jordan said. Authorities said Syed was taking one course at Saddleback College, a two-year community college.

Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said the woman killed at the home was in her 20s. She was not identified and was not related to the shooter, he said, adding that it wasn't known what she was doing at the home.

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With the purpose of writing about true crime in an authoritative, fact-based manner, veteran journalists J. J. Maloney and J. Patrick O’Connor launched Crime Magazine in November of 1998. Their goal was to cover all aspects of true crime: Read More